The conventional progressive wisdom is that the Trump Administration will be bad for cities and for transit users. But in recent decades, a unified Republican government has been better for public transit than a divided government.

An efficient and equitable transport system must be diverse to serve diverse travel demands. Planners need better tools to quantify and communicate the benefits of walking, cycling and public transit to sometimes skeptical decision makers.

On his trek across the United States on Route 50, Wayne Senville, editor of the Planning Commissioner's Journal, stops in Canon City and Fremont County (pop. 47,985), Colorado, and hears about how Canon City has prospered by hosting 14 prison facilities:

Prisons bring "big economic benefits... With thousands of inmates come thousands of prison staff (the Colorado Dept. of Corrections employs 1,756 in the County; the Federal Corrections Complexes employ 990 -- the prisons are by far and away the largest employers in Fremont County). Prison staff live and shop in the Canon City area, boosting the economy. There's minimal security risk to area residents, and no one could recall any recent breakouts."

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